As a Local Area Network (LAN) technology, Ethernet is more and more widely applied since its birth, and currently, is used in operator networks as an access convergence technology. In the current operator networks, the networks are relatively simple, and a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) connection is generally established through network management configuration. However, with wider and wider application of the Ethernet, the networks get more and more complex, and a high cost may be caused by configuration through merely network management
Currently, a mechanism of automatically registering a VLAN, that is, Generic VLAN Registration Protocol (GVRP), is defined, which runs in an environment of a spanning tree protocol. When a VLAN is configured at an edge port, the GVRP mechanism spreads the VLAN information in a network, and if a port that receives a GVRP packet with a same VLAN ID in two directions in the network, the VLAN ID is automatically registered on the port.
The current GVRP mechanism requires the support of the spanning tree protocol. If the spanning tree protocol is not supported, the GVRP packet will form a loop when being delivered in the network, therefore cause impact on the VLAN connection. However, in a practical network, a spanning tree rarely used due to a slow convergence time, so the GVRP is rarely used in practice. In addition, the GVRP does not support traffic engineering, but the practical network always requires the support of traffic engineering.